The Institute for Materials Research (IMR) congratulates The Ohio State University’s Center for Emergent Materials (CEM) on being awarded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the third time since 2008.
The new six-year, $18 million grant will fund transformative science and complex materials discovery by two multidisciplinary, collaborative groups of researchers and includes funding to help ease entry into science from underrepresented groups.
“We are excited to have won this highly prized funding because it enables scientists to undertake complex and transformative projects at the scientific frontiers, and provides sustained support for diverse teams to collaboratively synthesize new understanding and open new research topics,” said P. Chris Hammel, Ohio Eminent Scholar, Physics professor and director of the Center for Emergent Materials.
From 2006 to 2007, IMR led a university-wide, two-year process that landed Ohio State’s first NSF MRSEC, establishing the CEM with a $10.8 million award in 2008, in conjunction with ENCOMM (the Center for Exploration of Novel Complex Materials). The CEM has kept the ball rolling and the center growing ever since.
“Back in 2005 or so, Steven Ringel and I collaborated on a TIE (Targeted Investment in Excellence) proposal, from which IMR and ENCOMM (the Center for Exploration of Novel Complex Materials) were born. ENCOMM was the seed from which our NSF-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, named the Center for Emergent Materials or CEM, was born,” Hammel said. “CEM’s collaboration with IMR continues to this day to enrich and invigorate materials research at Ohio State.”
“The continued presence of an NSF MRSEC within the Ohio State materials community demonstrates OSU’s leadership position in the field and the huge research and educational impact of CEM,” said IMR Executive Director Steven A. Ringel. “The MRSEC is arguably NSF’s most competitive and prestigious program in all of materials science and engineering, and I congratulate Prof. Hammel and the entire CEM team on their accomplishment that extends the CEM for at least 18 years since its inception!”
The IMR continues to support all levels of CEM activities, from team building seed grant programs and the annual OSU Materials Week with its student poster competition, to support of the NanoSystems Lab, which is CEM’s primary shared core research facility, and other shared facilities around campus used by the CEM. In fact, both of the two IRGs awarded in the current cycle were nucleated in our Materials Research Seed Grant Program that is jointly administered by IMR, CEM and ENCOMM to nurture and develop cutting edge research by interdisciplinary teams.
Visit the CEM website to learn more about this grant, CEM and the IRGs.